Irom Sharmila’s Fiance: “They do wish to kill her”

Irom Chanu Sharmila is called the “Iron Lady of Manipur” and has been on a hunger strike for over 500 weeks in an effort to have the Indian State withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958 (AFSPA) from Manipur and other parts of India.

On the world’s longest hunger strike, she has completed over twelve years of fasting to protest human rights abuses in Manipur and promises to continue. Irom Sharmila went on a hunger strike on November 4, 2000 after soldiers gunned down 10 civilians at a bus station in Malom.

Steve Macias, Organization for Minorities of India, interviews Irom Chanu Sharmila’s fiancé Desmond Coutinho as he struggles to see the one he loves suffer through the agony of force-feeding, police brutality, and an endless cycle of prison sentences.